The doorknob rattled as it turned. “Hey,” Black Eyes said irritably as the door opened, “I said?—”
Isaac pivoted on the balls of his feet, swinging the tank lid as hard as he could. It crashed into Black Eyes’s head and sent him straight into the doorframe. The porcelain shattered between them, and Isaac wasted no time, dropping the broken chunk and shoving past him. Hands snagged his shirt, but he managed to rip free, careening into the other side of the hall and running.
He leaped over the half-wall into the training area, realizing belatedly that the place wasn’t empty. They were all here, the traitors and their demons.
“What the hell?” one of the demons said. He wore a leather jacket. His voice was familiar. This was the one who’d captured him from the guild.Talon. “Shadrach!”
Shadrach? Was that Black Eyes?
He staggered out of the hallway, holding one hand to his bleeding head. Powdered porcelain clung to his raven black hair and dusted his shoulders. “He fucking hit me with the toilet! Don’t let him escape!”
Across the room, Alex Hawk jumped up from the sofa with a scandalized look. “You broke a toilet?”
“Guys, wait,” Nathan Accardi said, raising his hands. A white-haired halfling stood beside him, his impressive arms crossed.
“Isaac,” Luke called, holding out a hand. “Just calm down.”
They were all closing in, inching closer and spreading out. They wanted to circle around him, cut him off from the exits. And then he saw it. Up against the mirrored wall across the room was a table laden with holy weapons. Bottles of holy water and oil. Sheathed knives and swords.
“Don’t even fucking think about it,” Talon growled.
Isaac met his eyes. “Fuck you.”
Alex warned carefully, “Talon.”
Talon tilted his head toward Alex without taking his midnight eyes off Isaac. “Don’t worry.”
Isaac lunged for the weapons table.
“Stop him!” someone shouted.
Shadrach appeared in front of him, and Isaac barreled right into him. Hands grabbed his arms, and he drove his knee into Shadrach’s groin and shoved past him.
“Shadrach, for fuck’s sake!” Talon snapped.
Isaac skidded to a stop beside the table, reaching for the hilt of a sword—but Talon appeared beside him and slammed his head into the mirror. The mirror crunched—or maybe that was his skull—as pain exploded in his head, and everything went dark for a few moments. He didn’t feel himself fall to the padded mat, but he knew his limbs weren’t obeying him. Their voices were muffled and distant, like he was hearing them through a long pipe. They came back to him slowly as his wits returned.
“…shouldn’t have done that…”
“…going to get a weapon and try to kill us…”
“…even get past you?”
Awareness returned piece by piece. His head throbbed, and no amount of blinking could clear away the blurriness in his vision.
“He said he had to use the bathroom! Ira said to take care of him! How was I supposed to know?”
“What do we do with him?”
“We shouldn’t tie him back up.”
“We can’t just let him go.”
“He’s lucky I don’t just fucking end him for that stunt.”
“Talon, we’re not killing him. We don’t do that.”
“He would’ve killedus!”
